In processing various products, it is oftentimes necessary to treat the product and, in so doing, a mixture of solid state and liquid state materials are produced which are preferably to be separated from one another before the liquid state material is removed from the treating area. Such is the case, for example, where certain meats, such as ground meats, are cooked and rendered fat then removed.
In order to cook certain meats, such as ground meat, for example, a cooking receptacle has commonly been utilized wherein the meat when cooked is mixed with rendered fat. The fat in such a cooking receptacle is normally first removed from the receptacle with the cooked meat then being thereafter removed. It has been found, however, that such fat cannot be simply pumped from the cooking receptacle since cooked meat is likewise pumped from the receptacle in undesired quantities.
It has therefore been the more common practice heretofore to remove such fat from the cooking receptacle by fastening a perforated cover to the open top of the cooking receptacle and then tilting the receptacle to pour the fat from the receptacle. While the fat may be thus removed from the cooking receptacle, such practice has been found to have certain disadvantages, such as, for example, by requiring a relatively long period of time for draining of the fat from the tilted receptacle (including passing at least part of the fat through the cooked meat), causing undesirable splashing in some cases when the fat is poured from the cooking receptacle, and/or not permitting practical control of the percentage of fat removed.